


Invitations of the Nine

by CrazyBoneLady



Series: Aim to Misbehave [6]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Visions, messed up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2020-01-01 04:46:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18328904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyBoneLady/pseuds/CrazyBoneLady
Summary: Nevia has visions and dreams of snowy wastelands and tries to find informations and help on the Derelict. Things don't turn out at expected.





	Invitations of the Nine

The Derelict was a simple ship, stuffed full with alien technology, a lot of it not even from this system. She was fascinated by it even if she had no idea what certain items where for. Nevia sometimes watched Drifter tinker with his tech, building and repairing tools for his Gambit. The most interesting of all was a portal type of device that helped to move across the empty space towards the Haul. From the outside it looked like a moon being dragged behind the ship, but she knew there was something else inside, had never asked though.. Until the visions and dreams began. 

In the silence of her ship, out in the system between the stars, Nevia dreamed of white landscapes, endless wastes of nothingness and a gentle voice calling out to her. She had heard that voice before in the Trials of the Nine. The Emissary. A beautiful, fascinating yet terrifying woman, hovering over the arena with a watchful, blank stare. She whispered to the huntress in her sleep, granting blurry visions of the past and future. Her own and others. 

Nevia’s first thought was that Yre tried to reach her from Europa but it wasn’t her Ahamkara friend. 

She woke up that morning with a terrible headache and aching bones, something Chia wasn’t able to heal. It was like a creeping pain coming from her very fingertips over her arms, neck and brain. Nevia pushed it to the recent jobs and missions she took from Drifter and her own network. The stress probably caught up to her, even though she knew deep down it wasn’t true. 

She tried to push it away for weeks but there was no point in ignoring it any longer, so she found herself on the Derelict, Chia just transmatted her into the large hall, which made up the back of the ship. Her eyes rested on the large portal to her left. It was like it was humming with energy. She felt drawn towards the Haul. 

“Nevia? Do you want me to inform Daisuke that we’re here?” Chia hovered next to her. Her Ghost’s single optic narrowed a little and almost looked worried. 

“No.. Hold on a sec.” She turned and climbed down the metal stairs, walking over the catwalk that approached another platform. “I’m wondering what’s on the other side.” 

“You shouldn’t. Don’t think I don’t know about your dreams and nightmares. You’re my Guardian.” Her small companion nudged her cheek lightly and tried to push her away from the portal. Nevia was determined, though. When she got closer, the device activated itself. 

“What do you think yer doing?” Drifter’s voice from behind startled her almost out of her skin. She swirled around and looked at him with wide eyes. “Didn’t expect ya back before next week.” He didn’t look offended or really worried about her actions to the muscles in her body eased a little. 

“The Wormspore delivery was brought to Spider. I took care of that myself.” Hidden underneath the half of her cloak, Nevia’s fingers played nervously with the trigger of Thorn, safely strapped to her thigh. 

“Ya went to the Tangled Shore and it’s still standing? Spider’s still kicking? You never fail to amaze me.” There was a smirk on his lips, while he approached her. Was there caution in his step? She couldn’t quite tell. “Ya came here just to tell Ol’ me that? Or ya missed me already?” 

She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself..” 

“So what’s it then, little Dredgen?” 

“I..” Nevia struggled, looked down at her free hand not entirely sure what to say to him. Maybe she should just be bold and honest with him. They were working together for some time now.. spending their nights in the same bed even longer. For a man like Drifter this was all nothing but the blink of an eye but for her it had been a few years. “I’m here because.. ah well..I know about your connection to the Nine so..”

There was a long pause between them. Drifter was just staring at her, eyes wildly searching her face, looking for some kind of hint or meaning. He seemed to have found it, because there was a flash of realisation in his expression. “Nah, that’s not good. They gave you visions, didn’t they? Don’t pay mind to that. This is my thing to deal with. Not yours. Don’t listen to that blue psycho.” 

“You expect me to do nothing about it?” 

“What do ya wanna do about it? These.. things are somethin’ else. Once they got a hold of ya… Let’s say like you don’t really have a say anymore in any matter.” His voice sounded really tired all of a sudden. Tired, old and maybe mentally exhausted. He had told her a few weeks back that she was the first person he considered trusting in around a thousand years. Left her thinking how old he really was.. What story he had to tell about his resurrection and the Dark Age. “Stay away from them. Don’t even think about it, if ya smart enough.”

“You say that like it would just work like that.”, she hissed at him, sounding rather irritated and her eyebrows were pulled together in a deep frown. 

“Nah.. It’s not.” 

She turned around. Her bright blue eyes focussed on the thick mist surrounding the Haul. Nevia could feel the cold coming from the emptiness outside. She wanted… No, needed to know what was happening. She wouldn’t suffer again like she did back in the Ocean of Storms.. Crota’s Temple. Helpless against a greater force. 

“Don’t even think about it.” He took a step forward, standing right next to her now. The portal still humming with energy. “Ya don’t know what’s expecting you. It’s different for everyone.” 

“I have to find out.” She reached out but he stopped her.

“I won’t let you. This is my thing to deal with. Not yers.”

She ripped her hand free and glared. “And who are you to decide what I think is right?” 

“I will not let them get their hands on ya. I know what happened on the Moon. Do you want to be in for another good portion of corruption and have your will taken away?!” Drifter was not a man to raise his voice in anger and they had a lot of arguments over the past few years. Mostly about business arrangements. “I’m not stuck with some stupid duty and let ya run wild head first into suicide like this horned idiot!”

Shocked about his words Nevia couldn’t do anything else but raise her hand and slap him across the face. “How dare you?” Her voice was nothing but a distressed whisper. “Cayde was the most loving, caring and warmest soul I’ve ever known. Nothing you could ever be. You have no right.” 

In her rage she didn’t catch the flash of emotion in his eyes, so short, one might thought it was nothing but imagination. “Ya need to snap out of it and stop goin’ crazy.” 

Nevia narrowed her bright eyes at him, determined and never backing down. She was stubborn to the bone and he knew that. She turned away from him, facing the portal once more. 

“Nevia. Stop.” 

Even with the surprise that he called her by her name the first time, she closed her eyes and just jumped forward. Gravity got a hold of her, like icy claws grabbing her arms and legs, pulling her violently out of the Derelict and launching her small form towards the Haul. 

On the other side, Drifter stood in front of the portal, just staring at Nevia as she vanished into the mist. He clenched his hands to fists and gritted his teeth. His Ghost appeared next to him and the silent, red optic focussed his Risen. He gave him a side glance and then lightly nudged him away. “Can ya believe that woman?!” 

The answer was nothing but a quiet stare. 

“Don’tcha look at me like that. She hit me!” He held his cheek with a deep frown on his face. 

More silent staring. 

He grumbled something to himself and looked upon the Haul. He could feel his ghost judging him. If she wanted to to get herself killed she could go right ahead!.. … It took him only a moment longer before he sighed in defeat. His ghost vanished and Drifter took the step forward into the portal. 

~

Nevia landed with her feet lightly in bright snow. This whole place was nothing but an icy wasteland with odd structures and a giant triangle hovering in the middle over a pit. This was the landscape she had seen in her dreams before. Stunned by the terrifying beauty of this place, she jogged forward, towards the abyss in the middle. 

There was nothing but a deep, black hole, however she felt the humming energy coming from below. She could either jump down and possibly die.. but have the chance to find out what was going on, or just do nothing and return to the Derelict. Everyone who knew her was aware, that she was too curious for her own good. Nevia carefully climbed the ice or maybe stone? She couldn’t quite make out the material. One of the spikes led further above the pit, so she was able to take a good look at it. 

Nevia gathered her courage and even with Chia’s protest in her head, she wanted to jump. Nothing new, that she never listened to her Ghost. 

“Hey! Come back there. Ya don’t wanna go down there, Sister.” Drifter stood not far away from her. When did he get her? Had he jumped after her? Why would he even care? Or was there something he was trying to hide from her? That was not unlikely.. 

“Told you to stop calling me that!”, she snapped and crouched down, one hand clenching around the edge of the spike beneath her. “I’m letting anything influence me again. I’m facing whatever is down there so it leaves me the fuck alone!” It were her last words before she dropped down backwards into the endless black, Chia screaming in her mind in distress. 

She expected a hard landing, if a landing at all but her fall was caught and gravity slowly set her back on her feet. There was nothing but an empty room here. Like a sky full of stars, but everywhere, even underneath her. What was she even standing on? 

“So you didn’t heed the Dredgen’s warning.” There was that voice again. Just so much closer. Nevia was startled and flinched, while she was slowly turning around. A quiet ‘fuck..’ escaped her mouth when she laid eyes on the Emissary… Or a huge version of her. She had seen this before on the third stage of the Trials.. They had been scared shitless. “You’re a curious being, Huntress.” 

Chia appeared next to her, single optic looking curiously around. “What do the Nine want from my Guardian? Why can’t you leave us alone?” Nevia could hear the ‘We’ve been through enough’ in her companion’s voice, but she stayed silent, waiting for the Emissary to actually speak her mind, if she still had one. The woman just stared at them in her unnerving beauty. Mouth never moving, as she spoke. 

“The Nine wish to learn about you. You and the Dredgen are anomalies amongst your kind. Fate lays in your hands and yet you throw it away. Why? What drives you?” She slowly blinked once, blind eyes staring into nothing. It gave Nevia the chills. 

“Fate hasn’t given me shit in my life. I don’t care about it. What drives me is none of your and your friends’ business. Leave me alone. Go and bother someone more interesting.” Nevia pulled Thorn from it’s holster and fired a shot at the Emissary’s face. 

“Your cursed weapon will not satisfy the thirst for knowledge, Guardian. There is hardly anything more interesting than you to them.” 

“We’re not your toys to play with.”, she spat back, fingers clenching around her weapon. “Your ‘gifts’ are nothing more than the means to an end. None of us has a choice in the matter, don’t we? You just do whatever you fucking please.”

“Hm.”, was her only answer and it left Nevia only more frustrated. “I can see why the Dredgen likes you. Be sure that we will be watching with great interest. We’ll speak again, Hunter.” And then she fell silent. Eyes unmoving, expression blank. The huntress stared at the Emissary with concern. She snapped her fingers a couple of times, waving them in the air. Great. No reaction. How was she supposed to leave now? 

“There’s a rift. Behind you.”, Chia informed her and Nevia glared at her with a frown, not missing the smug tone in her voice. 

Nevia returned Thorn to it’s holster on her thigh and covered it once more with her cloak. She turned around and moved towards the small crack in reality, glowing brightly. She reached out with her hand and it reacted to her closeness immediately, extending itself so she could go through. It was like stepping through the portal on the Derelict all over again. Gravity grabbed her and basically pulled her to another realm. It wasn’t painful, but disturbing. 

Instead of being brought back to reality Nevia got shown a scene from the Derelict. It was the room with the portal, where the transmat zone was. A table with Drifter and a guy in dark armor playing cards. She recognized those cards, played this game a lot with him. He always tried to cheat. 

During the course of the conversation Nevia figured out that this guy there was a Shadow of Yor probably wanting to do business with Drifter.. He called him ‘little man’.. She found that terribly amusing. Not sure what the whole stunt with the Taken were supposed to tell her. She only figured out now how he got the Haul.. but.. They didn’t exactly give him a choice. Just like he said.. Hm..

Her vision went blank white, blinding her terribly and a moment later she felt cold snow underneath her hands. She couldn’t see only using her fingers to feel a way forward, but everything was the same.. until she felt something with a leathery texture. 

“Ey, Hot Shot.” A shadow made her eyesight go from white to greyish, while it slowly cleared again and she could recognize the shape of a boot in front of her. It made her look up instantly and her disoriented eyes met Drifter’s. “Ya still alive. What a sight for sore eyes, heh.” He reached down to grab her wrist and pulled her back onto her feet. Nevia was still dizzy though and had issues to stay on her feet up right. 

“You’re still here.”, was all she said, somehow feeling her consciousness fading again. 

“‘course I am. Gotta see if you make it out of the psycho’s hole alive.” His lazy smirk was the last thing Nevia saw, before her vision left her and she fell back down into the snow. Drifter stood over her, arms crossed over his chest. “... And she is gone.” 

Chia appeared from her Guardian, furiously scanning her and making a distressed chirping noise. The blue beam kept trailing over Nevia’s motionless form over and over again. “I can’t heal her! There is no damage.” 

“Sure, there isn’t. These asshole mess with ya head.” He frowned, debating what he should do with her now. His own Ghost joined Chia, nudging her shell lightly and then stared at Drifter with a narrowed, red optic. “What? You want me to carry her back to the ship like a damn princess?” 

“You really would just leave her here? I have no idea what she sees in you. You’re a dick.”, the female ghost spat at him. 

“Why do ya even care? You Ghosts are not our friends. I know yer kind! You’re nothing but selfish little shits. If your Guardian dies, you die. Thought about that, huh?” He poked her with two fingers and made Chia spin a little. While they were arguing, his Ghost used his transmat to cover Nevia with a blanket, making an irritated, static noise what caught the other’s attention. 

Drifter fell silent and crouched down. “Why ya never listen, little Dredgen..”, he muttered to himself and picked her up with ease. The stone cold expression on his face never leaving, while he approached the transmat circle inside the small type of building. He held tight onto Nevia, the Ghosts both vanishing and they got moved away from the Haul, back onto the Derelict. 

He carried her over the catwalks to the front part of his ship. Aside from the cockpit with the small living area, there was nothing more than a container including his bedroom and workshop all in one. Various tech parts, books and blueprints laid around the place. He needed to push a bunch of metal away to actually approached his makeshift bed. Drifter put her down on the sleeping bag and turned away, sitting down at the desk. 

“I’m sorry.. I’m worried about her.” Chia hovered next to him now, but Drifter didn’t give her a single glance, before he started tinkering with a weapon in front of him, taking it apart. 

“You Ghosts.. Ya have no idea what you do to us. Raising us to walk around like a damn zombie, never actually living. You just take that from us. Yer nothing better than the Nine. Ya just fucking do what you want.” 

The Ghost fell silent then. There was nothing she could say to change his mind so she decided it was more important to watch over her Guardian. Funny enough Daisuke thought the same way. Nevia had named him that. Chia liked the name. The other Ghost was always friendly towards them but there was some cold blood between him and Drifter. 

Nevia woke up a few hours later. Her head felt like she had pulled a Saint-14 and headbutted a Kell. She groaned quietly and held her forehead, sitting up slowly and looked around. She knew this room and a turn to the right revealed that Drifter was still tinkering. She leaned over and reached out towards him. He had shrugged off his armor earlier and decided for casual clothes. 

Her small hand placed itself on his shoulder, he tensed instantly and spun around. Probably more reflex than anything, because his expression eased, once he laid eyes on her. “You’re up.” 

“Yeah, no shit.” She smiled faintly. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Nothin’ but habit.” He turned fully and placed his elbows on the knees. “So.. Anythin’ interesting happened down there?” 

“Fuckin’ creepy it was. I tried to shoot the Emissary..” She rubbed over her shaved head and shrugged. Drifter threw his head back and laughed. “And she talked some weird stuff.. I can’t really recall everything it.. She wasn’t even looking at me. Just..staring off into the distance.”

The laugh had quickly died down and the smirk on his lips vanished in the blink of an eye. “Yeah.. she does that. Freak, she is.”

Nevia looked at him for a long moment. There was always something about him. Something regretful and sad, tired and bitter. Maybe it came with the long years of living.. or not, if one asked him. His open and joking behaviour was nothing but a cover and she knew. It was what originally drew her to him, but there was some deeper understanding between either of them now. “Hey.. I know you’re not really the type but.. Mind to give me some company?” 

He seemed to consider, but eventually moved and gestured her to move over a little, taking both ghosts from the pillow and putting them on the table, ignoring the annoyed noises coming from them. He stayed on top of the blanket, though. She laid on her back, looking at the ceiling. “You have a lot of books..Are they all filthy novels?”

He chuckled lightly, laying on his side. “Nah. Not all of them.” 

“Shame..” She smiled lightly and was a bit surprised, when she felt an arm around her middle. “There was a guy in that vision.. You played cards with him.. Threatened you with Thorn. Nice move with that Captain.. not thought through, though.”

“You saw that? Not weird at all…” 

“He called you little man.” She turned her head a bit and smiled lightly, almost giggling at Drifter’s grumpy expression. This might be the most normal thing they ever did so far. Nevia hated to admit it but she felt fragile right now. “I’m sorry, I slapped you.”

“Nah, deserved it.” 

That was probably as good as it got to an apology for him. They were far from perfect. Actually, they were completely messed up. Dysfunctional. But the world and this universe was messed up as well. Things weren’t as simple as the Vanguard and their leaders made them to be. Protect humanity… Humanity was done and she believed him, had seen it herself. 

She loved her family. Sio.. Jareth, Anna, Yvette, Echo.. But she had no place here anymore. 

“She seems to know you.. More than you let on.” She chose her words carefully, not wanting to make him angry. Drifter didn’t like it when one poked around in his past, but to her surprise, she got an honest answer. 

“I did know her. Long ago before she went off to chase the Nine. Joined a bunch of other guardians because of her back in the Dark Age. Some type of militia. Her name back then was Orin. She used to be a Titan. We were ah.. pretty close.” He ended his sentence and she could almost feel that he wasn’t focussing on the present anymore. He had seen so much in his life and his words that he didn’t need anymore memories made so much sense to her eventually. “Gotta be honest with ya, little Dredgen.. I’m not one to tell you all these things face to face. Gives me the jitters.”

“You don’t have to.. either way..” She reached up around his jaw and brushed her fingers through his hair above the headband. Nevia wondered when the last time was someone showed him any kindness. Real kindness. Not just some fake bullshit. “You’re not so bad, you know.. Aside from all this.. Darkness and Taken and shady business..”

“Ah.. that’s just part of my clever plan to seduce you into following me.” He chuckled against her temple and it sent shivers down her spine. 

“I’m gonna leave the system with you.. If your offer still stands.” 

“Thought about this, didn’t ya?” It took him a moment to reply to her, but she had no issue with giving him the time. 

“For a while. I don’t think, I have a place in the Tower anymore. I love my friends, but they don’t need me. They have each other and most of them are better of without me. Since Cayde died, I’m not the same anymore. I just do, what I feel is right and maybe I’m just a bit curious what’s out there.” 

“Just a bit, huh?” She felt his grin against her skin and he just leaned a bit lower and nipped at the top of her ear. Nevia yelped and smacked him at the back of the head. 

“You startled me!” 

“I can’t believe you hit me again. That gonna become a habit of yours?” She turned towards him onto her side, a frown on her forehead but there was a teasing and mischievous expression in her eyes. 

“Keep going and I do worse things, than hit you!” She poked him in the chest, not able to hold her smile anymore, but she eventually felt dizzy again. The shit that happened at the Haul really took a lot out of her, mentally. Nothing that Chia could heal. 

“All you will be doing now is take a nap. I got some more work to do.” He was about to leave the bed, but she stopped him. “What?”

“Can you stay a bit? Just until I sleep.” 

“No string attached, huh? Remember that statement?” He obviously teased her, smirking down at her, but Nevia looked away and suddenly felt bad. She shouldn’t be doing this, right? It felt like betraying Cayde all over again. “Hey, not that face. Just jokin’.” He settled back down and she returned to her former action, stroking through his hair, until her mind faded away into a still very restless sleep.


End file.
